Starting today Avatar: Fire and Ashes is in theatres and is already smelling like an Oscar. It is the third chapter in the saga created by James Cameron, which began in 2009 and is set on Pandora: a planet far from Earth, inhabited by the Na’vi, an indigenous people in deep balance with the natural environment around them. A fictional world that, in film after film, has become one of the most recognisable in contemporary cinema.
At the centre of the story is Jake Sully, a former human marine who has chosen to live as Na’vi, and Neytiri, a warrior of the local people. In the first two films, their battle was directed primarily against the RDA, a powerful Earth-based organisation interested in exploiting Pandora’s resources without any regard for the ecosystems or those who inhabit them. A simple dynamic to understand: colonisation, extraction, militarisation.
A conflict that comes not only from outside
Fire and Ashes restarts from that conflict, but introduces a new element. Pandora is no longer told as a united front resisting outside invasion. Enter the
This novelty makes the narrative less schematic and closer to reality. The film shows how
Fire as a symbol of the environmental crisis
The title is not accidental. After water, the central element of the previous chapter, fire dominates here. Fire as a weapon, as a means of control, as a symbol of irreversible change in natural balances. Where fire passes, ashes remain-a condition that makes reconstruction more difficult than mere resistance.
The family dimension also takes on a key role. Jake and Neytiri are not just fighting to defend a territory, but to protect their children and the future of the next generation. It is a point that makes the environmental message concrete and understandable: nature conservation is not an abstract idea, but a choice that affects those who will come after us.
Visually, Cameron continues to use advanced technologies, such as 3D and motion capture, to build an immersive experience. The special effect serves to make tangible the beauty of an ecosystem and, consequently, the gravity of its destruction.
Avatar: Fire and Ashes tells a self-contained, understandable story that uses science fiction to talk about very real issues: resource exploitation, armed conflict, environmental crisis. Pandora remains light years away from Earth, but the questions it raises are immediately recognisable. And they concern us all.
